yyaazz's tech thoughts

I’ve already shown a couple of features of the NetApp Virtual Storage Console (VSC). With this post I start to present the backup and restore related stuff. For backup and recovery the VSC 2.0.1 integrates (and the installer actually installs) the SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure. With SMVI the NetApp created snapshots can be handled more efficiently.

Simplify management and increase productivity for your backup, restore, and disaster recovery operations in a VMware environment.

I like using NetApp technology instead of the standard snapshots in vSphere, because

• I can have a lot of snapshots without performance issues
• I can mount the snapshot and have single file restore
• I can integrate with SnapMirror, and restore on the remote site

After installing VSC two additional services appear:

• NetApp SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure
• NetApp vSphere Plugin Framework

No additional SMVI install required, or if you have on older version installed, you have to remove it prior the VSC installation. For Backup and Recovery two things must be set up in the VSC:

• Storage System – contains the IP and credentials for the array
• Global Email Alert – SMTP server, default Sender and Recipient

Let’s see, how is it working. For testing I have a couple of Debian Linux VMs. I choose Debian almost for everything, it’s very easy to create small linux environment which contains only what I want. Let’s have a backup first:

Right click on the VM -> NetApp -> Backup and Recovery -> Backup Now. Let’s self-name the backup to find it easier in the future, and start:

If you check the controller console at this time, you can see the SVMI has logged in:

ntaprod> Sun Jan 30 11:10:40 GMT [app.log.info:info]: localhost: SMVI SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure Server 3.0.1 (build date=’100914_0130′, version=’1194′): (70101) SMVI Info: SMVI version : SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure Server 3.0.1 (build date=’100914_0130′, version=’1194′)  Host Os : Windows Server 2008 R2  Host Os version : 6.1  VC version : 4.1.0  Connected Storage Systems: [10.1.170.113]

According to the selection SMVI creates a VMware consistency snapshot. When the backup is done, let’s create some disaster.

The running linux does not care the kernel, it’s needed only for booting. So I simply delete and my VM will be stable while it’s running, but it won’t boot next time. Now it’s time to check the controller and see the created backup (for the example, some time elasped)

Volume nfsvol

working…

%/used       %/total  date          name

———-  ———-  ————  ——–

1% ( 1%)    0% ( 0%)  Jan 30 08:00  hourly.0

3% ( 2%)    0% ( 0%)  Jan 30 00:01  nightly.0

4% ( 0%)    0% ( 0%)  Jan 29 23:05  smvi__single-file-test_20110130000234

4% ( 1%)    0% ( 0%)  Jan 29 20:00  hourly.1

4% ( 0%)    0% ( 0%)  Jan 29 16:00  hourly.2

4% ( 0%)    0% ( 0%)  Jan 29 12:00  hourly.3

85% (85%)   33% (33%)  Jan 29 08:00  hourly.4

I used the ‘snap list’ command to check the snapshots on my volume. With the self-name I can simply detect which is my manually created backup. With this test I restore the VM as simple as possible:

ntaprod> snap restore -s smvi__single-file-test_20110130000234 nfsvol

WARNING! This will revert the volume to a previous snapshot.

All modifications to the volume after the snapshot will be

irrevocably lost.

Volume nfsvol will be made restricted briefly before coming back online.

Are you sure you want to do this? yes

You have selected volume nfsvol, snapshot smvi__single-file-test_20110130000234

Proceed with revert? yes

Sun Jan 30 11:28:13 GMT [wafl.snaprestore.revert:notice]: Reverting volume nfsvol to a previous snapshot.

Volume nfsvol: revert successful.

Successful!!! Before I go out to a pub to celebrate the success with my friends, let’s see what I did. I made a volume snapshot revert, so the whole volume has been restored, in my case it contains 5 another VM. This type of restore takes down the VM, I crossed my fingers, and booted it up again

Yes. The VM booted up, so I have the kernel definitely back. On the other hand we lost all of the snapshots which were created after the one we reverted (as said by my favourite NetApp trainer: “Back to the Future”)

Volume nfsvol

working…

%/used       %/total  date          name

———-  ———-  ————  ——–

0% ( 0%)    0% ( 0%)  Jan 29 23:05  smvi__single-file-test_20110130000234

1% ( 1%)    0% ( 0%)  Jan 29 20:00  hourly.0

1% ( 0%)    0% ( 0%)  Jan 29 16:00  hourly.1

1% ( 0%)    0% ( 0%)  Jan 29 12:00  hourly.2

85% (85%)   33% (33%)  Jan 29 08:00  hourly.3

This procedure was a bit painful for a single file restore. To show how cool and sophisticated can it be, in the next two part:

• I’ll use single file restore method with FlexClone technology
• I’ll set up SnapMirror to replicate the volume and it’s snapshot to a virtual remote site, and make a restore